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6°02′33″S 106°09′39″E / 6.0424495°S 106.1609316°E / -6.0424495; 106.1609316
Banten, also written as Bantam, is a port town near the western end of Java, Indonesia. It has a secure harbour at the mouth of Banten River, a navigable passage for light craft into the island's interior. The town is close to the Sunda Strait through which important ocean-going traffic passes between Java and Sumatra. Formerly Old Banten was the capital of a sultanate in the area, was strategically important and a major centre for trade.
History
In the 5th century Banten was part of the Tarumanagara kingdom. The Lebak relic inscription, found in lowland villages on the edge of Ci Danghiyang, Munjul, Pandeglang, Banten, wad discovered in 1947 and contains two lines of poetry in Pallawa script and Sanskrit. The inscription mention the courage of king Purnawarman. After the collapse of the kingdom Tarumanagara following an attack by the Srivijaya empire, power in western Java fell to the Kingdom of Sunda. The Chinese source, Chu-fan-chi, written c. 1200 by Chou Ju-kua, mentioned that in the early 13th century, Srivijaya still ruled Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java (Sunda). The source identifies the port of Sunda as strategic and thriving, pepper from Sunda being among the best in quality. The people worked in agriculture and their houses were built on wooden poles (rumah panggung). However, robbers and thieves plagued the country.[1] It is highly possible that the port of Sunda mentioned by Chou Ju-kua referred to the port of Banten.
According to Portuguese explorer Tomé Pires, in the early 16th century the port of Bantam (Banten) was one of the important ports of the Kingdom of Sunda along with the ports of Pontang, Cheguide (Cigede), Tangaram (Tangerang), Calapa (Sunda Kelapa), and Chimanuk (estuarine of Cimanuk river).[2]
As a trading city Bantam received an influx of Islamic influence in the early 16th century. Later in the 16th century, Bantam became the seat of the powerful Banten Sultanate.[3]
English Bantam
The English East India Company began to send ships to the East Indies around 1600 and established a permanent trading post at Bantam in 1603, as did the Dutch also. In 1613, John Jourdain was appointed as Chief Factor there, holding the administrative post until 1616, apart from a few months of 1615, when Thomas Elkington was Chief Factor; he was succeeded in 1616 by George Berkley, but from 1617 until 1630 the factory was under a chosen President. From 1630 until 1634 a succession of Agents were appointed annually, but from 1634 the series of Presidents resumed until 1652. Aaron Baker (1610-1683) served for twenty years as President of Bantam, as is recorded on his mural monument in Dunchideock parish church, Devon. In the thirty years following 1603, the trading factories established by the English on the Coromandel Coast of India, such as those at Machilipatnam (estd. 1611) and Fort St. George (estd. 1639), reported to Bantam.[4]
During the 17th century, the Portuguese and the Dutch fought for control of Bantam. Eventually, the fact that the Dutch found they could control their Batavia trading factory, established in 1611, more thoroughly than Bantam may have contributed to the decline of the English trading post.
The town today
Today, Banten is a small local seaport, in the economic shadow of the neighbouring port of Merak to the west and Jakarta to the east. There is a significant Chinese presence in the community.
In fiction
South-Bantam or Bantan-Kidoel or Lebak was the place where the eponymous character in Multatuli's novel Max Havelaar acted as the assistant-resident.
See also
References
Citations
- ^ Drs. R. Soekmono (1973). Pengantar Sejarah Kebudayaan Indonesia 2 (2nd ed.). Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius. p. 60.
- ^ SJ, Adolf Heuken (1999). Sumber-sumber asli sejarah Jakarta, Jilid I: Dokumen-dokumen sejarah Jakarta sampai dengan akhir abad ke-16. Cipta Loka Caraka. p. 34.
- ^ Yakin, Ayang Utriza (2017-03-20). "The Transliteration and Translation of the Leiden Manuscript Cod. Or. 5626 on the Sijill of the Qadi of Banten 1754-1756 CE". Heritage of Nusantara: International Journal of Religious Literature and Heritage. 5 (1): 23–76. doi:10.31291/hn.v5i1.188. ISSN 2442-9031.
- ^ N. S. Ramaswami, Fort St. George, Madras, Pub. No. 49, Tamilnadu State Department of Archaeology (T.N.S.D.A.), Madras, First Edition 1980
Works cited
- Witton, Patrick (2003). Indonesia. Melbourne: LonelyPlanet. pp. 164–165. ISBN 1-74059-154-2.
External links
Banten travel guide from Wikivoyage
1 Annotation
First Reading
Pedro • Link
Bantam and other relevant info...
Bahasa Indonesia Banten
Former city and sultanate of Java, Indonesia. It lay near the site of present-day Banten, on Banten Bay, at the extreme northwest of the island, just north of Serang. Now in ruins, Bantam was the most important Javanese port for the spice trade with Europe from the 16th century until the end of the 18th, when its harbour silted up. Its site is now more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea. Ruined buildings include the Pakuwonan palace (1680), Fort Speelwijk, and several mosques, the oldest of which dates from 1562. Under Dutch occupation Bantam was the westernmost residency of Java, comprising the districts of Pandeglang, Serang, and Lebak. The people of the region are still known for their fervid devotion to Islam. Bantam fowl were erroneously thought to have originated there.
Agung, Abulfatah
Ruler of the powerful Javanese sultanate of Bantam from 1651 to 1683.
Agung encouraged English and French trade but successfully opposed Dutch expansion into the area in the early part of his reign. In the 1670s, however, when he attempted to change the succession to his throne from his older son Sultan Haji to his younger son, Haji revolted and with Dutch help seized the throne. Haji had to pay war costs and grant a trade monopoly to the Dutch. Agung ended his days in captivity, and Bantam came under Dutch domination.
Coen, Jan Pieterszoon
In August of 1613, after a trip to the Spice Islands (i.e., the Moluccas), he was appointed head of the company's post at Bantam, in Java, and, in November of 1614, he also became director general of the company's commerce in Asia…
When the sultan of Bantam resisted his attempts to control the pepper trade, Coen transferred his headquarters to Jacatra (present Jakarta), so as to be freer to pursue his aims. In October 1617 he received news of his appointment as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies…
Word came to him, however, in March 1620 that the Dutch and English trading companies had reached an agreement in London: each would let the other engage in trading activities in the existing settlements, without interference, and a joint fleet would be outfitted against common enemies. Coen, seeing part of his work destroyed, reacted by defining the company's “Jacatra Kingdom” as far as the sea south of Java, making it impossible for the English to claim jurisdiction over any Javanese territory whatsoever.
Lancaster, Sir James
In April 1601, in command of the Red Dragon, Lancaster went on the first trading expedition of the East India Company. At Bantam, Java, he established the first of the company's trading posts. He was knighted after his return to England in 1603. Lancaster remained a director of the company, and he sponsored several voyages in search of the Northwest Passage, the American Arctic waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
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